Friday Favorites: Crush Edition

So this is new…I thought I’d try to have a weekly meme thing on here, just to liven things up a bit and give me an excuse to talk about things I love. And I like alliteration, so Friday Favorites it is.

This week we’re talking about celebrity crushes. Which in my case means Bollywood crushes. (I thought I’d better start with them since I haven’t talked about Bollywood much at all lately, even though it’s in my blog’s title!) I’ve managed to narrow it down to 8 – I’d planned to do 5, but then someone would be left out, and they might think (in the unlikely chance they come across my blog) I don’t love them anymore!

Abhishek Bachchan

Where I first saw him: In Hum Tum, as the man Rani Mukherjee is marrying the second time she and Saif Ali Khan meet. But it wasn’t until Bunty aur Babli that I really fell in love.
Why I like him: He’s tall. And goofy-but-suave. And he has this way of looking at you…I mean, the heroine…that makes your knees melt. And his voice!

Shahid Kapoor

Where I first saw him: I can’t really remember…I think it was 36 China Town, but that could be wrong. I just remember seeing pictures and thinking he looked like a really young, Indian Tom Cruise. And then I saw him in a movie and was lost.
Why I like him: He’s so hot but still so adorable. He’s the only actor I can think of who could pull off a character like Prem, in Vivah, (impossibly sweet and sincere and earnest) without it seeming fake. And the boy can dance like nobody’s business!

Saif Ali Khan

Where I first saw him: In Dil Chahta Hai, where he plays goofy, sweet Sameer who falls in love at the drop of a hat.
Why I like him: His gorgeous eyes. His smile. The way he can make you love him even when he’s playing a complete cad, or a semi-evil terrorist (“He’s too pretty to be bad!”, as my friend Katie says whenever we watch Kurbaan.)

Prabhas

Where I first saw him: In Pournami, where he plays a happy-go-lucky dance teacher with a tragic past.
Why I like him: Like Abhishek, Prabhas is tall, and has that same sort of lanky, goofy-but-suave charm. And do you see that picture? *swoon* The first time I saw it I knew I would watch any movie this guy made.

Mahesh Babu

Where I first saw him: Pokiri, and it was love at first sight.
Why I like him: At the risk of repeating myself (I’m starting to think maybe I do have a “type”, after all), he’s tall and lanky and charming. He talks with this deceptively lazy drawl that makes you feel all weak in the knees. And he’s so intense. I think of all these guys he’s the one who I’m most upset about him being married so I don’t even have the tiniest chance!

Subbaraju

Where I first saw him: No idea. The first time I noticed he was just as hot as most movie heroes, though, was in Bujjigadu. He almost always plays the bad guy, so it’s slightly disturbing that I find him so attractive when he’s doing all sorts of dastardly things, but he’s just so handsome!
Why I like him: He’s so gorgeous, and so much fun to watch. Since he’s usually “villain’s henchman number one” he doesn’t get a lot of lines and almost always ends up humiliated at the hands of the hero, but he makes the most of every minute he gets onscreen.

These last two aren’t really “crushes” in my usual sense of the word, because much as I love watching their movies I’ve never daydreamed about actually being romantically involved with them. But I couldn’t leave them out, because without them I wouldn’t be half as Bollywood-obsessed as I am today!

Aamir Khan

Where I first saw him: Aamir was the first Bollywood hero I ever saw, as Bhuvan in Lagaan.
Why I like him: Because every time I watch him in a movie, I fall in love. He gets completely in to his characters and doesn’t just do the Patented Aamir Khan Routine over and over. For the three hours or so that you’re watching the movie, you really believe that he’s a terrorist, or a teacher, or a mild-mannered factory manager whose household has been taken over by Juhi Chawla.

Shah Rukh Khan

Where I first saw him: Kal Ho Naa Ho. Or was it Kuch Kuch Hota Hai? Either way, it didn’t take me long to go from, “Who is this big-nosed overacting man and why is he so popular?” to “Victim #9,000,000 of the Shah Rukh Khan Charm.”
Why I like him: The Shah Rukh Khan Charm. He’s not amazing-looking at first sight (but after a while you think he’s gorgeous). He overacts. When his characters cry you don’t just see a single manly tear roll down his cheek – no, his lips quiver, his whole face contorts, and he sobs. When he laughs, it’s maniacal. But it works, and it works so well that once you’ve been won over you’ll defend him to the death against any nay-sayers.

Well, there you go. Eight pretty guys to liven up your Friday!

December Movies

Little Women (1994, English) – Winona Ryder, Christian Bale
Even though only part of the movie takes place at Christmas, Little Women always feels like a Christmas movie to me. So it’s become my traditional “getting into the Christmas spirit” movie.

Junglee (1961, Hindi) – Shammi Kapoor, Saira Banu
I like the first half of this Bollywood classic better than the second – Shammi and Saira find themselves stranded in a blizzard together, falling in love despite his previous belief that wealth and position are more important than affection. Shammi plays the crankypants businessman with comic flair, stomping around and pouting like a toddler in full tantrum mode.

Beauty and the Beast (1991, English) – Disney animated, various voices
It always seems sort of wrong to see a Disney movie in DVD form – I remember envying my friends their collections of VHS tapes in puffy white plastic cases. My parents wouldn’t buy us the movies because my mom was boycotting Disney for some reason or other, but somehow I always ended up seeing them anyway, and Beauty and the Beast was my favorite. Happily it’s still as wonderful as it was when I was 9!

The Little Mermaid (1989, English) – Disney animated, various voices
I cringed a little while watching this one, not because it’s bad – it’s not, it’s still great – but because I could remember being 7 and having my first crush (on Prince Eric) and all the time I spent in the swimming pool that summer singing “Aaaaaaaaaaa” like Ariel and pretending to be a mermaid.

The Three Musketeers (2011, English) – Matthew MacFadyen, Orlando Bloom, Milla Jovovich
Pretty much every review I’ve come across for this movie panned it. And I can’t say that it’s a great movie, but it is ridiculously entertaining, and I kind of loved it. There’s a gleeful unconcern for historical accuracy, and a lot of swashbuckling, and nonsensical costumes. Oh, and Luke Evans, who plays Aramis? Hello, handsome…

Monte Carlo (2011, English) – Selena Gomez, Leighton Meester
Pure preteen-daydream wish-fulfillment: an ordinary (though of course spectacularly pretty) girl from Texas goes to Paris with her friends and winds up being mistaken for a spoiled brat heiress who walked out on her all-expenses-paid trip to Monte Carlo. I loved it!

The Lion King (1994, English) – Disney animated, various voices
I always got so frustrated with this movie when I was a kid – there were no princesses in pretty dresses, and Timon and Pumba were just sort of gross, with the fart jokes. (I was a very prissy child.) And now it just makes me cry a million times.

Cinderella (1950, English) – Disney animated, various voices
This movie was so wasted on me as a kid! I always remembered it for the “annoying mice” and “Cinderella’s ugly wedding dress”…what was I thinking? Watching it now, I loved the retro look of the animation, adored Cinderella’s wedding dress, and thought the mice were cute instead of irritating. Unfortunately it’s selling for $46 on Amazon, so unless I find a copy at CD Tradepost or somewhere, I can’t buy it. Stupid Disney vault… *grumblegrumble*

Captain America (2011, English) – Chris Evans, Hugo Weaving, Tommy Lee Jones
I’m not much of a superhero movie fan, but I did kind of like this one. Or would have, if Captain America’s first superhero act hadn’t been to KILL RICHARD ARMITAGE. That is completely unforgiveable.

Oy! (2009, Telugu) – Siddharth, Shamili
Right up front the director puts a list of his “inspirations” for this movie, so if you’ve seen A Walk to Remember or Love Story, you know what’s going to happen. Still, a movie with Siddharth is always worth watching, and some of the songs are pretty. I wish the romance had been handled better, since it feels like the love is all on his side until the last 5 minutes or so, but it’s nice to watch now and then.

Christmas in Connecticut (1945, English) – Barbara Stanwyck, Dennis Morgan
My favorite Christmas movie! It’s very funny and I love the witty banter and goofy antics as Elizabeth Lane and her “husband” juggle two babies and a pompous magazine publisher while entertaining a war hero for Christmas. I’ve heard rumors that Jennifer Garner is starring in a remake next year, which should be interesting.

Die Hard (1988, English) – Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman
Someone told me I should watch this back in March when I said I liked Bruce Willis in Red, but hearing someone say this was their favorite Christmas movie finally got me to watch it. I could have done without all the f-words, and fight scenes will always be wasted on me, but I did enjoy the story, and Alan Rickman as a villain.

Ice Castles (1978, English) – Lynn-Holly Johnson, Robby Benson
I thought I remembered this from watching it at slumber parties when I was a skating-obsessed teenager, but I must not have been paying attention very well since none of it seemed familiar. The whole premise is fairly ridiculous – a promising young skater goes blind but attempts to compete again anyway – and for the life of me I can’t figure out why she’d want to date a floppy-haired slacker who quits everything he ever starts instead of a good-looking sports broadcaster, but it was the seventies.

True Grit (2010, English) – Hailee Steinfeld, Matt Damon, Jeff Bridges
My dad got this for Christmas and wanted me to watch it with him, so I settled in to humor him. To my surprise, I loved it! The acting is great, and it’s so funny without trying to make you laugh, if that makes sense. Like, there aren’t a bunch of jokes set up with pauses for audience laughter, but if you’re paying attention to the dialogue it gets completely absurd and you can’t help laughing.

How To Train Your Dragon (2010, English) – animated, various voices
One of the most lovable movies I’ve ever seen. Won’t someone please tell me where I can find a Night Fury?

Love U…Mr. Kalakaar (2011, Hindi) – Tusshar Kapoor, Amrita Rao
Even fast-forwarding through most of it, I swear this movie was about 5 years long. Tusshar Kapoor is so bland, and his character is drippy. I love watching Amrita Rao – she’s so pretty and dainty, like a Barbie doll come to life! – but she can’t carry a whole movie when her co-star isn’t doing anything to help.

Mausam (2011, Hindi) – Shahid Kapoor, Sonam Kapoor
The movie I’ve most been looking forward to all year, and I can’t say I was disappointed, despite a few moments that require you to suspend disbelief to the breaking point. It was a good idea for a story but the execution needed some work. However, it’s absolutely beautiful to look at, and Shahid and Sonam play their roles perfectly. And the scene where they say goodbye while Shreya Ghoshal sings “Abhi Na Jao Chhod Kar” a capella is just perfect!

The Shop Around the Corner (1940, English) – James Stewart, Margaret Sullavan
I’ve had a lifelong aversion to Jimmy Stewart, so when I saw he was in this I almost changed my mind about watching it. Fortunately I didn’t, because this is such a cute, fun movie! And I didn’t even mind Jimmy – I even thought he was kind of handsome.

Love Actually (2003, English) – Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Colin Firth, etc.
I know I’ve seen this before at least twice, but either I saw an edited version or I’ve just blocked out a lot, because I didn’t remember there being nearly as much profanity or nudity. It’s too bad, because with the vulgarity cut out this could be such a sweet, heart-warming movie. I don’t mean to be a prude, but I just don’t want to see naked people or hear the f-word a zillion times.

And now I am off to probably watch another movie before the night is out. If I do, I’ll add it to the list tomorrow!

November Movies

Jab We Met (2007, Hindi) – Shahid Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor
Nothing in Aditya’s life is going right, and he aimlessly hops on a train to Delhi to get away from it all. When he and his seatmate, a cheerful, talkative girl named Geet, are stranded late at night in a strange railway station, Geet makes it his responsibility to get her home.

This is the perfect pick-me-up movie. It’s bright and happy, Aditya and Geet are adorable together and on their own, and I just never get tired of it.

Fanaa (2006, Hindi) – Aamir Khan, Kajol
Zooni, a blind girl from Kashmir, meets rakish tour guide Rehan in Delhi where she and her friends are performing for Independence Day. They plan to marry, but Zooni, after successful surgery to restore her eyesight, is told he’s died in a terrorist attack. Seven years later he shows up on her doorstep in a blizzard, wounded and half-frozen and on a mission for the same group responsible for the earlier attack.

I love this movie to pieces. No matter how many times I see it I still swoon in the same parts, get goosebumps in the same parts, and cry in the same parts. One of my very favorites.

Twilight (2008, English) – Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson
Bella moves from Phoenix to gloomy Forks, Washington, so that her mom can travel with her baseball-player husband. Expecting a couple of dreary years to endure before graduation, she’s surprised to find that the presence of Edward Cullen, her gorgeous and mysterious new classmate, makes Forks more interesting than she ever dreamed possible.

You know, I’ve seen this movie more than a dozen times now and it’s starting to grow on me again. I loved it at first, then went through a phase where I couldn’t stand it, but now it makes me a little nostalgic and I love it again. There are things I dislike about it, and gaping holes in the script that I can’t believe no one caught (like when Edward saves Bella from the van that’s about to hit her, and then hops up and over the bed of her truck to get away – right in front of the girl in the car behind her, who saw it all…so much for secrecy), but there’s an earnestness about it that I like.

Breaking Dawn (2011, English) – Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson
Bella finally agrees to marry Edward and he finally agrees to turn her into a vampire so they can be together forever. Bella’s insistence on staying human long enough for their honeymoon, though, has completely unexpected consequences.

Did I ever do my big gushing “I LOVE THIS MOVIE!” post? I can’t remember whether that ever made it out of my head. Well, anyway, I loved it. I thought they finally did a good job interpreting the book, Kristen and Rob finally felt like their characters to me, and overall it was just good. I know all the critics are saying otherwise, but I think they’re missing the point – this isn’t a movie made for critical acclaim or winning awards, it was made for the fans.

180 (2011, Tamil) – Siddharth, Nithya Menon, Priya Anand
Manu – or is his name Ajay? – shows up in Chennai one day, rents a room for 6 months, and spends his days doing nice things for people, which catches the eye of Vidya, a photojournalist looking for subjects. Her feelings for Manu quickly turn romantic. Meanwhile, in flashbacks it’s revealed that Manu is really Ajay, a doctor in San Francisco who fell in love with his patient Renu, but for some reason left her and came to India to do good.

Overall I really liked this movie, until it came to the end. Leaving the first time was understandable, the second was reprehensible. It didn’t ruin the movie for me, but it did end things on a sour note. It was presented as “look, he’s such a great guy now, completely carefree and just living one day at a time,” but…SPOILER…he abandoned his wife, who now thinks he’s dead. Sure, he’s playing with kids on the beach and helping elderly ladies carry big loads of vegetables, but he broke a woman’s heart and didn’t even give her a chance to say goodbye. I was expecting better.

Mere Brother Ki Dulhan (2011, Hindi) – Imran Khan, Katrina Kaif, Ali Zafar
Luv’s girlfriend breaks up with him and in a fit of pique he asks his brother Kush to find him a wife. Kush finds Dimple, a girl he knew in college but hadn’t seen for years, and the marriage is quickly arranged. During the wedding preparations, though, Kush and Dimple fall in love themselves.

I haven’t loved a Bollywood movie this much since Dil Bole Hadippa. Seriously. It is just adorable and fantastic and fun. This is why I love Bollywood.

Badrinath (2011, Telugu) – Allu Arjun, Tamanna
A group of Hindu elders, concerned about the destruction of historic temples, assigns a group of boys to learn martial arts and defend the remaining temples. One boy, Badri, is a particular favorite of their instructor, who wants to make him his heir. This involves a vow of celibacy, which isn’t a problem for Badri until Alakananda falls in love with him.

I’m still not sure what I thought of this one. There were parts where it was a lot of fun, and parts where it was incredibly stupid. Tamanna has a lovely figure, but did we really need to see quite so much of it? I liked the songs, especially the ones where Arjun has short hair since the long, stringy look wasn’t doing much for me. It was a fun timepass, but I’d rather watch Parugu or Desamuduru again next time I’m in the mood for an Allu Arjun movie.

100% Love (2011, Telugu) – Naga Chaitanya, Tamanna
Balu is always the top student in school until his cousin Mahalakshmi moves in with his family and starts attending the same school. After arguing and feuding for weeks, they finally join forces to make sure they stay on top and their rival Ajith doesn’t beat them. During their study sessions Balu and Mahalakshmi fall in love, but his jealousy when she defends Ajith drives a wedge between them that lasts for years.

Yeah, I know, the cousin thing is kind of gross. If you can get over that, though, or ignore it and pretend they’re not actually related, this is a fun little movie. Naga Chaitanya is adorable, even more so than in Ye Maya Chesave. The drama in the second half got dragged out too long, I thought, but other than that (and the cousin thing), it was pretty good.

Bandslam (2009, English) – Aly Michalka, Vanessa Hudgens, Gaelan Connell
Will is excited to be starting over in a new school, since life at his last one was horrible. He’s flattered when gorgeous, popular senior Charlotte starts hanging out with him, and helps her put together a band to compete in the Bandslam competition, but his friendship with Charlotte jeopardizes his friendship with quirky Sa5m (“the 5 is silent”).

I was surprised by how much I liked this! For some reason I was expecting a sort of high school Almost Famous, but it wasn’t like that at all.

Breaking Dawn (2011, English) – Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson

Yes, I saw it again. And I liked it even more the second time!

The Bourne Identity (2002, English) – Matt Damon, Franka Potente
Fished from the water with two bullet holes in his back, a man wakes up with no memories and the only clue to his identity a chip with a bank account number embedded in his hip.

Another of my all-time favorites. I’m not usually much of an action movie fan, but for some reason I really like this one.

September Movies

Gnomeo and Juliet(2011, English) – James McAvoy, Emily Blunt, Jason Statham, etc.
Romeo and Juliet re-imagined as garden gnomes. It’s extremely odd but likeable, especially if you know your Shakespeare quotes and can pick up on all the inside jokes.

The Prince of Egypt (1998, English) – Val Kilmer, Ralph Fiennes, etc.
Animated musical version of the story of Moses. It’s pretty good but I wasn’t crazy about it. Maybe I just wasn’t in the mood for an animated movie that night.

Dirty Dancing (1987, English) – Patrick Swayze, Jennifer Grey
Sheltered, idealistic “Baby” meets sexy dance teacher Johnny at a resort and learns a lot more than the cha-cha. Blargh, that sounds so stupid. Apparently I think in cliches today. Anyway, I have a love-hate relationship with this movie. Sometimes I watch it and think it’s wonderful, other times I wonder what I ever saw in it. It was the slumber party movie of choice for a few years (alternating with Pretty Woman), so I’ve probably seen it at least a dozen times, but somehow I still never remember everything.

Raavan (2010, Hindi) – Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Vikram
When the outlaw Beera kidnaps his wife Ragini, police inspector Dev becomes obsessed with getting her back and punishing Beera. Very sad, but very beautiful.

Raavanan (2010, Tamil) – Vikram, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Prithviraj
When the outlaw Veera kidnaps his wife Ragini, police inspector Dev becomes obsessed with getting her back and punishing Veera. The same movie as Raavan, only in Tamil and with Vikram playing Abhishek’s role and Prithviraj playing the husband. I preferred the Hindi version mainly because the dubbed voice for Aishwarya Rai sounds wrong.

Aladdin (1992, English) – Disney animated, various voices
The sinister Jafar learns that “street rat” Aladdin is the only one who can enter the Cave of Wonders and get him a mysterious lamp. Much to Jafar’s chagrin, Aladdin ends up in possession of the lamp and the all-powerful genie trapped inside, and uses it to win the heart of Princess Jasmine. It’s a toss-up whether this or Beauty and the Beast is my favorite Disney movie. I watched it so often as a kid that I still have most of the lines memorized!

Unknown (2011, English) – Liam Neeson, January Jones, Diane Kruger
Waking up in a German hospital with amnesia after a car accident, Dr. Martin Harris goes to find his wife, sure she’s frantic with worry. But when he finds her she claims not to recognize him, and introduces another man as her husband, Dr. Martin Harris. My brother had accidentally told me the plot twist at the end, so I knew what was coming but still enjoyed it very much. It’s a lot like the Bourne movies, which are some of my favorites.

The King’s Speech (2010, English) – Colin Firth, Helena Bonham-Carter, Geoffrey Rush
Afflicted with a stammer, the Duke of York dreads public speaking. After numerous specialists have failed to cure him, Prince Albert “Bertie” is ready to give up, but his wife convinces him to see one more man – Lionel Logue, an Australian actor who works as a speech therapist. After hearing so much hype about this movie I was afraid it wouldn’t live up to my expectations, but it really is as good as everyone says.

Mr. Perfect (2011, Telugu) – Prabhas, Kajal Agarwal
Vikram “Vicky” decided as a child that he would never compromise what he wanted to make someone else happy. He’s lived his whole life this way, even walking away from a huge contract when a member of his team has to quit and the company buying their video game suggests one of their own employees as a replacement. Returning to India for his sister’s wedding he’s appalled when his parents suggest he gets married to a girl he was frequently told to compromise for – “let her play cricket, even if you lose it’ll make her happy,” etc. Much to his surprise they get along very well and even fall in love, but she’s happy in India and he likes his life in Australia, and refuses to change or ask her to change. Back in Australia Vicky meets a woman who lives her life the same way he does, and they plan to marry, but her father has encountered Vicky before and dislikes his arrogance and attitude toward life. This isn’t one of Prabhas’s best movies, but I liked it better than Darling. It’s very sweet and family-oriented, and the moral of the story is that it’s better to make other people happy than live selfishly.

Casino Royale (2006, English) – Daniel Craig, Eva Green
James Bond’s first big mission as 007 takes him from the Bahamas to Montenegro to Venice, on the trail of a man who funds dictators and gambles with their money on the stock market. I like this and Quantum of Solace maybe a little more than I should, considering how amoral Bond generally is.

“I have no idea what an Australian might do for that sort of money.”

If I could just get over this stupid cold I’d be enjoying the fall-like weather very much.

It was a very movie-filled weekend. Friday night my brother and I went out to dinner and then rented Unknown, in which Liam Neeson plays a man who has to go back to the airport for a suitcase they left behind while his wife checks into the hotel, is in a car accident, and wakes up in the hospital 3 days later with amnesia. When he remembers his name and the name of the hotel he goes to find his wife, sure she’s sick with worry, only to find her on a date with another man – a man who claims to be him. It was very twisty and exciting, a little like The Bourne Identity, but Liam Neeson was a bit too old for the part. Especially since his wife was played by January Jones and the taxi driver who helps him figure things out is Diane Kruger, both young enough to be his daughters.

Saturday, after crisscrossing the city looking for sake for a teriyaki chicken recipe (apparently only one liquor store in town sells it, and really I shouldn’t have bothered, because after all the work of making my own sauce it tasted exactly like the Kikkoman Teriyaki Sauce I usually buy), Steve came over again and we went out to lunch and then watched The King’s Speech, which was (for a change) just as good as everyone said it was.

I feel like I should have more to say about that, but, well, if you’ve seen it you already know how good it is, and if you haven’t I’d just be another person rambling about a movie you haven’t seen, so…

Saturday I also bookmarked a recipe for apple cider cinnamon rolls that I’m going to have to make soon or else go crazy imagining how incredible they must taste.

Yesterday I decided to spare everyone at church my constant coughing and nose-blowing and stayed home. In the afternoon, while painting my nails dark grey because I read somewhere it’s The Color for nail polish this season and you know I follow trends slavishly, I watched Mr. Perfect. You might remember I was a bit burned out on Telugu movies after Prabhas, Siddharth, and NTR had a few bad ones in a row, but I needn’t have worried. Mr. Perfect wasn’t quite up to Prabhas’s old standards, but it was very cute and funny. The absurdly oversized clothes made a few appearances again (Seriously, what is up with that? Did someone find a bag of clothes outside the wardrobe department and decide to save money on costumes?), and Prabhas needs to work a little on not mumbling to try to sound cool – he just sounds a bit drunk or slow in the head. And, okay, so only one of the songs was really very good. But it’s not a bad movie at all. It worked in one of my favorite tropes – “I’m in love with you but you love someone else so I’m going to hide my feelings and help you get the one you love, only to break down as soon as you’re not looking” – and found creative ways to work in fight scenes but still keep it a movie mostly about romance and family and the consequences of being a selfish jerk who refuses to adjust to anyone else’s needs.

Unnecessary but adorable picture of Prabhas and Kajal, which is more entertaining than my blathering:

Emily’s Top Fifteen Indian Movies

I should warn you now, this is going to be epically long.

In no particular order:

Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana
He is a happy-go-lucky rich boy visiting India for his cousin’s wedding. She is an orphan who’s been raised by her loving, protective older brother. When they fall in love, it is the most adorable thing ever, but of course things can’t go smoothly, thanks to a spoiled rich girl who wants him for herself. If you don’t like this movie, there is something deeply wrong with you.

Fanaa
A blind girl meets a rakish tour guide on a trip to Delhi. Far from home for the first time, she’s not sure what to do when she develops feelings for him. Then tragedy strikes, and they’re torn apart. Seven years later he shows up at her door, wounded and half-frozen, and they fall in love all over again…Ohhh, this movie is just about perfect!

Dil Chahta Hai
After college, three friends go their separate ways and find their friendship tested by the choices they make. Um…that sounds really boring, but it’s not! There’s romance (the scene where Akash proposes to Shalini using the same cheesy pickup line he tried earlier always makes me swoon), there’s Akshaye Khanna in one of his few good roles, there’s a road trip to Goa and Saif Ali Khan being goofy and fun songs like this one.

Veer-Zaara
A Pakistani girl meets an Indian air force pilot when she travels to India to immerse her Sikh nanny’s ashes in the river. Despite only spending a few days together they fall in love, but she’s already engaged and her father needs the influence of her fiance to further his political career. This is the movie that cemented my Shah Rukh Khan love.

Pournami
In rural 1960s Andhra Pradesh, a certain family always has the oldest daughter dance at a festival, to commemorate an ancestress who danced until death while praying for rain years before. This year, the village is in an uproar because Pournami, the girl who was supposed to dance, ran away. Her sister Chandrakala could take her place, but their father refuses. What no one outside the family knows is that Pournami was sent away to protect her from a sleazy landlord who wanted her to “dance” for him first. Then the mysterious Sivakesava appears, wanting to teach Chandrakala to dance and strangely knowledgeable about Pournami and the family’s plight.

Dil Bole Hadippa!
Veera Kaur is the best cricket player around, but since she’s a woman she’s never allowed to play. Every year she has to watch while the local team is slaughtered by a team from Pakistan whose coach has a rivalry with their coach. Then the coach’s son, Rohan, comes to India from London to put together a team that could actually win. Veera disguises herself as a boy and finally gets a place on the team, but her deception could cost her Rohan’s love. It is utterly adorable and even my Bollywood-mocking brother loves it.

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi
Shy, nerdy Surinder Sahni is madly in love with the beautiful girl he married. But for her it was just an arranged marriage of convenience, to give her security after her first fiance and father died on the same day. To win her heart Suri transforms himself into “cool guy” Raj. This is right up there with Fanaa on the list of near-perfect-for-me Bollywood movies. So sweet and romantic and cute! Only Shah Rukh Khan could make a guy like Suri, with his sensible shoes and terrible hair and bumbling ways, into a guy you’d want to marry.

Athadu
A hitman running from the police (for a murder he didn’t commit) takes shelter with a family, pretending to be their long-lost son. The longer he stays, the easier it becomes to pretend, and to fall in love with his “fiancee”, but the police are closing in, and he still has to figure out who double-crossed him in the first place. Oh Mahesh Babu, how I love you…

Parineeta
Shekhar and Lalita are childhood sweethearts, but his father wants him to marry the daughter of a rich businessman to help his career. When Lalita’s uncle takes a loan from Girish, a man Shekhar sees as his rival for Lalita’s affections, he’s consumed by jealousy and pushes her away, believing his father’s lies about her instead of going to her for the truth. So romantic and so beautiful, with a vintage look since it takes place in 1960s Calcutta. One of my favorite Saif Ali Khan movies!

Vivah
The sweetest arranged marriage story ever! Prem and Poonam meet, get engaged, and gradually fall in love on the way to their marriage. Very little drama, except near the end, and just sugary-sweet all the way through, which is probably why so many people dislike it. I love it!

Magadheera
A warrior and a princess, torn apart by an evil rival, are reincarnated in modern-day Hyderabad and fall in love all over again. Little do they know the forces that kept them apart before have been reincarnated as well, and are still out to get them. So much fun, and gorgeous, especially in the historical flashbacks.

Jab We Met
Depressed and wandering aimlessly through the city after leaving his ex-girlfriend’s wedding, Aditya hops on a train without buying a ticket. His seatmate, Geet, is talkative and bubbly and a bit nosy, so when he gets off the train in the middle of nowhere late at night she follows him, and then they’re both stranded, which sets off a crazy trip by taxi, bus, oxcart, and any other way they can find to get to her house. Make this number 3 on the perfect movies list.

Chupke Chupke
The only oldie on the list…I just can’t get as into them as the newer movies. I don’t know why. But this one is perfectly lovable: Sharmila Tagore and Dharmendra get married and then try to fool her know-it-all brother-in-law into thinking she’s having an affair with the new chauffeur, her husband in disguise.

Chori Chori
After being kicked out of her apartment in the city, orphan Khushi remembers hearing about a house in Shimla that’s sitting empty while the architect tries to convince his girlfriend to marry him and live there. She moves in and is discovered by his family, who assume she’s the fiancee he’s been talking about. When Ranbir finds out he’s angry but asks her to keep up the charade since it’s making his girlfriend jealous and might finally get her to marry him to get rid of Khushi. Starring Rani Mukherjee at her most adorable, and Ajay Devgan, one of my biggest actor crushes.

Humko Tumse Pyaar Hai
Beautiful, blind Durga falls in love with the mysterious stranger who saves her life. They plan to marry, and he finds a surgeon who believes her blindness can be cured, but when he’s killed by a jealous rival Durga is inconsolable. Her kindly doctor adopts her and takes her to Switzerland to recover, where she meets Raj, who is smitten with her and also grieving for a lost friend. Neither of them realizes that they’re mourning the same man, or that he isn’t dead.

August Movies

Not many this month…I was too busy re-watching Doctor Who, and then Vampire Diaries, and then watching Season 3 of Roswell.

Shakti (“Power”) (2011, Telugu) – Junior NTR, Ileana
Aishwarya just wants to go have fun with her friends, but her dad insists she stay in the house under guard. She sneaks out anyway, not realizing a mystical diamond fell into her backpack when she was taking money from the safe. After hiring a tour guide named Shakti, Aishwarya and her friends travel in his company all over northern India, unaware they’re being pursued by members of an ancient Egyptian tribe who want the diamond for themselves.

With a little less CGI and a little more romance, this could have been a really fun movie. Sadly, it was not.

Kal Ho Naa Ho (“Tomorrow may not come”) (2003, Hindi) – Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta, Saif Ali Khan
Since Naina’s father committed suicide, she’s been careful to avoid love. The closest she comes to friendship is sitting with Rohit during their MBA night classes. Then Aman moves in across the street and wins her heart with his carefree attitude to life. But Aman has a secret he knows would only break her heart, and tries to set her up with Rohit instead.

This was the second or third Bollywood movie I saw, and I adored it. Then I think I watched it too many times, because now the emotional impact is gone (I used to sob through the last half hour, now I don’t even cry at the saddest parts) and all I notice are the cringe-worthy moments where things just don’t work. I wish I’d never listened to all the cynical people on BollyWhat who pointed out everything they didn’t like about it!

I am Number Four (2011, English) – Alex Pettyfer, Dianna Agron
“John Smith” is actually an alien whose planet was taken over by the evil Magadorians. He and a few others escape, along with their care-takers, to earth, where they mostly try to keep a low profile while the Magadorians hunt them. John is Number Four, which makes him fourth on the hit list, and when Number Three is killed he and his protector Henry settle in a podunk town in Ohio. There John is bullied by the popular jocks for no apparent reason – he’s attractive and athletic-looking, and in real life he’d be part of their group within 20 minutes – and falls for the lonely, beautiful photographer who used to date the quarterback. Then John’s powers start to show up, and so do the Magadorians.

It was entertaining enough, for a summer blockbuster marketed to teenagers. Not interesting enough to get me to read the book, but I’d see any sequels they come out with.

Jane Eyre (2011, English) – Mia Wasikowska, Michael Fassbender
After a loveless childhood shuffled between a cruel aunt’s house and a miserable boarding school, Jane Eyre finds work as a governess at Thornfield Hall. For the first time she knows freedom and a sense of belonging and even love – but nothing at Thornfield is as it seems.

It’s hard to judge this movie, since I spent the whole time comparing it to my favorite version, the one with Toby Stephens. It is very beautiful, and adapts the book well, though a lot gets left out. I want to watch it again before I decide what I think.

Napoleon Dynamite (2004, English) – Jon Heder, Efren Ramirez, Jon Gries, Aaron Ruell
A loser-ish dweeb in small-town Idaho does loser-ish, dweeby things. It’s funny.

Yeah, I…don’t really know why I wanted to see this again. It’s only funny when you’re watching it with a group of people and can all crack each other up quoting it later. By yourself, it’s just sort of dumb.

New Moon (2009, English) – Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson
Edward leaves Bella, etc.

I’m no fun to watch these movies with, because I just sit there the whole time complaining about what they did wrong. I’m this close to giving away my DVDs and not even bothering to see either Breaking Dawn movie, to save myself any more aggravation.

Bbuddah Hoga Tera Baap (“Your dad is an old man”) (2011, Hindi) – Amitabh Bachchan, Sonu Sood, Prakash Raj
Gangster Kabir Bhai wants policeman Karan killed so he’ll be free to plant bombs and murder people in peace. Vijju, a retired gangster living in Paris, returns to Mumbai at the same time and impresses Kabir’s gang with his sharpshooting abilities.

My favorite part of this movie, besides seeing Amitabh Bachchan play an older version of his characters from the 70s, was seeing some of my favorite South Indian bad guys in a Hindi movie. Prakash Raj is excellent as always, and Subbaraju, even though he was only playing his usual “henchman number five” role, is always fun to watch. Amitabh Bachchan has a slight tendency to overact, but it suits the character here. SPOILER ALERT I think I would have liked the ending better if Sita had told Karan that Vijju was his father, and they’d gone to fight the bad guys together, rather than Karan lying unconscious in the hospital while Vijju fought them all himself.END SPOILER But Puri Jagganadh always seems to have trouble coming up with satisfying endings.

Singham (“Lion”) (2011, Hindi) – Ajay Devgan, Kajal Agarwal
Bajirao Singham is a man-of-the-people style policeman who views the whole village as his extended family. When he gets on the bad side of hotelier/gangster Jaykant Shikre, Shikre vows to make Singham’s life a living nightmare.

Remaking South Indian movies has become a trend in Bollywood lately, but Singham is the first one I’ve seen that actually works. Ajay Devgan actually has the body and presence for South Indian-style hero roles, unlike Salman Khan who makes everything look goofy and spoof-ish. I wouldn’t mind seeing him remake more of Surya’s movies!

A Pointless but Amusing Poll

Originally I was going to post a video of my favorite song from Darling yesterday, but I changed my mind when the post ended up being longer than I’d planned. Then I thought it might be fun to do a poll about two of my favorite South Indian movie songs, for no better reason than that they both have scenes involving water that are pretty much the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. It doesn’t matter if you’ve never seen either movie, don’t understand the words, all I want to know is…

Option One: “Inka Edo” from Darling, a Telugu movie starring Prabhas and Kajal Agarwal (also known as “the only time in the movie Prabhas wears attractive clothes). If you want to skip to the water part because you’re a soulless monster who hates pretty songs, it starts at 1:54.

Option Two: “Pachai Nirame” from Alaipayuthey, a Tamil movie starring Madhavan and Shalini. If you want to skip to the water part because you’re a soulless monster who hates pretty songs, it starts at 2:51.

I hope all that makes sense. And if not…just enjoy the music!

Tollywood Burnout

It started with Prabhas’s Darling. Then Siddharth’s Baava, followed by NTR’s Brindaavanam and Shakti. Is it just me, or are none of my favorite actors making very good movies these days?

Darling took Prabhas from his usual “cool, tough guy” persona and turned him into a wimp wearing clothes 3 sizes too big. It didn’t help that whoever dubbed for Kajal Agarwal was allowed to shriek and fake cry (badly) to her heart’s content. And then the story just sort of meandered along, not really sure whether it wanted to be a romance or a story about family. There was a half-hearted attempt to throw in some action at the very end, but it was too little, too late. I liked the songs, especially “Inka Yedho”, which has one of my favorite picturizations ever, but it wasn’t enough to save the movie.

Dear Prabhas, you are gorgeous, but even you can’t pull off this look.

Baava had all the ingredients to be a cute, fun movie like Siddharth’s previous Telugu romantic comedies, but it fell flat. Just like Darling, the story suffered from a lack of direction. Now we’ll do this! Now we’ll do that! Now let’s have a flashback! Now the hero and villain will have a bike race to decide who gets the girl, with the entire village willing to stand by and hand her over to the villain if he should win. Because heaven forbid a woman should change her mind about who she wants to marry! As for the songs…I don’t remember a single one of them. Nothing stood out enough for me to want to listen again. And in a Telugu movie, that is a tragedy.

Why, Siddharth? Why?

NTR and his last two lackluster films disappoint me the most. I’ve always liked NTR, even in his older movies where he’s chubby and overacts like crazy. And really, Brindaavanam wasn’t so bad. It suffered from meandering story syndrome, and had an annoying cop-out ending (implying he didn’t need to choose one of the heroines but could just marry them both), and his dancing in Chinnadho leaves something to be desired (which you should never have to say about NTR!), but I didn’t hate it. I just didn’t feel as happy when it ended as I did after watching Yamadonga, Adhurs or Kantri.

You are adorable and this movie is cute, but it could have been so much better!

Shakti was the most disappointing of the lot. It seems like they had an idea to do this fantasy/mythological movie but couldn’t bring themselves to not do a straightforward masala romance as well. So you have weird fantasy elements (like a tribe in Egypt who still live like it’s the days of the pharaohs, a woman cutting out her son’s eyes and replacing them with the eyes of her dead husband, a magical temple which can only be entered after a solar eclipse when you put the right trident in the right hole in the ground) alongside Ileana being “bratty snooty girl unimpressed with the tour guide she’s obviously going to be in love with by the end of the movie”. And everything went on too long. Every time the temple was opened we had to see the whole sequence of events. Both epic battles in the temple took up a good 15-20 minutes of screen time, though neither was all that interesting. It was a good idea, it just needed to be polished more before they actually filmed it. And the songs, sadly, weren’t that great. As with Baava, I don’t even really remember them. The real problem was that NTR didn’t seem to be enjoying himself. Usually in his movies that’s what hooks you: he’s obviously having such a good time dancing, beating up bad guys, teasing the heroine, bantering with his sidekick, that it makes you enjoy the movie more. In Shakti I didn’t get the impression that he was all that happy to be there (though I could just be imputing my own boredom/lack of interest to him).

Next time more of this, less of the goofy fake mythological stuff, please?

I’m not giving up on any of them. I’m still looking forward to Mahesh Babu’s Kaleja (if it doesn’t come out on DVD soon I might cave in and rent the Hindi-dubbed version just to see what it’s about), Prabhas’s Mr. Perfect, and Siddharth’s 180. But I have been disappointed lately, which is why I haven’t talked much about the movies I’ve been watching.

July Movie List

*The Fall (2006, English) – Lee Pace, Catinca Untaru
I’m not even going to try to write a plot summary, because I only saw this in bits and pieces while my sister watched it and I was making bagels. From what I saw, I don’t think I’d enjoy it.

Lord of the Rings: Return of the King Extended Edition (2005, English) – Viggo Mortensen, Elijah Wood, etc.
Frodo and Sam make a last push to get the ring to Mount Doom. Meanwhile, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli enlist the aid of a ghostly army, the Rohirrim (and Merry) ride to battle at Minas Tirith, and Gandalf (with Pippin) tries to get Denethor, the Steward of Gondor, to fight. Arwen realizes her father lied to her about her future and returns, choosing to live a mortal life with Aragorn instead of sailing away from Middle Earth with the elves.

I always forget how very long this movie is. Does it make me a bad person that I wish the Frodo and Sam parts didn’t interrupt the cute boy parts so often?

*Pride and Prejudice (2005, English) – Keira Knightley, Matthew MacFadyen
Blah blah blah, you all know what it’s about.

We started to watch this one night before going out somewhere, and never finished it. At least, I didn’t. Carrie might have watched the rest later. She’d never seen it all the way through before, and for two weeks afterward we kept saying, “What excellent boiled potatoes,” and cracking each other up at random moments.

Royal Wedding (1951, English) – Fred Astaire, Jane Powell
Brother-sister dancing team Tom and Ellen Bowen are asked to put on a show in London as part of the royal wedding celebrations. Ellen falls for a lord she meets on the ship over, and Tom for one of the dancers in their musical, but he’s a confirmed bachelor and she’s a dedicated flirt…what will they do?

Fluffy, nonsensical fun. The story always takes a back seat to the dancing, and apparently three days is enough acquaintance to get married on. Still, it was fun.

Fast Five (2011, English) – Vin Diesel, Paul Walker
Dom, Brian, and the gang get together for “one last job” in Brazil before they all go their separate ways. Framed for a murder they didn’t commit, Dom and Brian are chased by an American cop (the Rock…I mean “Dwayne Johnson”) who has a reputation for never giving up.

Fairly stupid when you think about it logically, but while I was watching this I felt like I was on an adrenaline rush. I wished some of the girls would put more clothes on, and there was a lot of language I didn’t approve of, and most of the acting is dreadful, but by the end I just wanted a black Dodge Charger of my very own, which is probably what Dodge was hoping for.

Pappu (2010, Telugu) – Krishnudu, Subbaraju, Deepika
Poor Pappu. Chubby, bumbling, good-natured, and unlucky, he can’t catch a break. He falls in love with his boss’s daughter, so when she’s kidnapped and the detective asks him to help he quickly agrees – not realizing that he was only asked because a priest told them that they’d only succeed if an unlucky person was on the case.

Things I liked: Subbaraju, playing a good guy for once.
Things I didn’t like: the rest of the movie. It was too silly and childish. I don’t know if it was meant to be a kids’ movie, but it seemed like one, and not in a good way.

Game (2011, Hindi) – Abhishek Bachchan, Kangana Ranaut
An eccentric millionaire calls 4 people to his private Greek island, promising each one his help with their personal cause. Once there he confronts them all with a crime they played a part in: the death of his daughter Maya. Before they can talk further he commits suicide – or was it murder?

Game has a definite “And Then There Were None” vibe, but it doesn’t follow that story very closely. The majority of the story takes place off the island, as the police follow all four suspects to see if the murderer will give him-or-herself away. I didn’t love it, but it’s a good movie. I especially liked seeing Abhishek Bachchan being all brooding and handsome again – it’s been too long since I saw him in anything!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2 (2011, English) – Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, etc.
Harry and his friends get ready for the final battle, as Voldemort and the Death Eaters prepare to attack Hogwarts. Harry believes he knows what he has to do, but the prophecy binding his and Voldemort’s destinies is more complicated than Dumbledore told him.

I laughed. I cried (though I wasn’t one of the girls sobbing in unison in the front row). I was happy that it ended well. But I still prefer the books.

Konchem Ishtam Konchem Kashtam (2009, Telugu) – Siddharth, Tamanna
Geetha and Siddhu got off to a bad start, but now they’re in love. When they go to her dad for permission to marry, he says no – Siddhu’s parents are divorced, so how will he know how to be a good husband? He’ll only let them marry if Siddhu can reunite his parents, who haven’t spoken to each other in years.

This is a lot funnier than I made it sound – think “The Parent Trap”, with a couple trying to get parents together instead of twins. Siddharth is adorable as always, and he and Tamanna work well together. It’s lighthearted and cute and a lot of fun!

How to Steal a Million (1966, English) – Audrey Hepburn, Peter O’Toole
Nicole Bonnet and her father have a secret: their famed art collection was painted by Mr. Bonnet himself, not Renoir or Van Gogh or Monet. Mr. Bonnet recklessly auctions off his own paintings, laughing his way to the bank, until he loans his “Cellini” sculpture to a museum who wants it insured – and that means tests for authenticity. To keep her father out of jail, Nicole enlists a thief named Simon to help her steal it before the experts can arrive to test the statue and find out it’s a fake.

This might be my favorite movie ever. It’s so delightfully low-tech for a heist movie – no elaborate schemes or safes to break into; it’s all done with magnets and wires and even a boomerang. I love the 60s clothes and cars and Paris scenery and the banter between Nicole and Simon, and Eli Wallach as an eccentric American millionaire who’d marry a girl just to get his hands on her art collection.

Ready (2011, Hindi) – Salman Khan, Asin
Prem meets “Pooja” at the airport and brings her home thinking she’s his intended bride. But really she’s Sanjana, on the run from her feuding mobster uncles who each want her to marry their son.

I liked the Telugu version better – there weren’t so many fart jokes, and Ram actually looked the age of the character he was supposed to be playing. The Hindi version is fun, though, if you just take the absurdity at face value and don’t think too much. And the songs are a lot of fun, especially “Character Dheela” (Loose Character).

Tanu Weds Manu (2011, Hindi) – Madhavan, Kangana Ranaut
Manu’s parents take him to meet Tanu. She’s asleep, ostensibly because she’s been sick and the doctor gave her sedatives. He thinks she’s pretty and agrees to marry her. The next day she tells him the truth – she was so drunk she passed out, and she has no desire to marry him because she already has a boyfriend. Manu agrees to call off the engagement, but he’s fallen in love with Tanu.

This sounded good, but it ended up being extremely boring. Manu gets Tanu by moping until she suddenly decides she loves him, then her boyfriend gives a long speech about how he’s only letting her go because he’s such a nice guy, and she and Manu get married. I wish I’d turned it off halfway through and taken a nap instead.

She’s the Man (2006, English) – Amanda Bynes, Channing Tatum
Viola Hastings impersonates her brother Sebastian at his new boarding school while he goes to London for a music contest. She falls for her roommate Duke, who likes Olivia, who likes “Sebastian”…

I’ve always loved this movie. Amanda Bynes is so good at comedy, and there are so many great one-liners throughout the whole thing. And Channing Tatum is gorgeous.

Kurbaan (2009, Hindi) – Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor
Avantika is swept off her feet by fellow teacher Ehsaan, who proposes to her when she gets a job in New York, saying he’ll be happy to follow her to America rather than making her give up her dreams for him. Life seems perfect, until one of the neighbors tells Avantika she’s afraid for her life, and then goes missing. Ehsaan brushes her fears aside, but Avantika investigates anyway, and uncovers a secret that endangers her life, her marriage, and everyone in the city.

Kurbaan has a lot of similarities to Fanaa, which is probably why I love it so much. I just wish I hadn’t let my friend Katie bring three of her friends with her last night, because they DROVE ME CRAZY. For some reason they’ve decided all Indian movies are a joke, and that I invite them over to watch Bollywood so we can all sit and laugh. I won’t be making that mistake again.

Gah!

My co-worker just walked in carrying MY PURSE.  The one I wrote about Monday.   How rude!

In other news…

*I’ve started Withering Tights by Louise Rennison. So far it is very funny, and not very much like the Georgia Nicholson books. I particularly like this passage:

As we looked up at the flames and smoke a figure emerged onto the roof in between the high chimney pots.

I said to Vaisey, “Bloody hell, it’s Mrs. Rochester. I’m not Jane Eyre, I don’t want to get married to some blind bloke who shouts a lot.”

Vaisey said, “It can’t really be Mrs. Rochester, can it?”

I said, “Well, you say that, but it all adds up, doesn’t it? We’re in Yorkshire on some moors at a big house, the roof’s on fire, and someone, who may or may not have been banged up in the attic for years, has just come out onto the roof. I’m only stating the obvious. Who else could it be?”

Then we noticed that “Mrs. Rochester” was wearing a mackintosh and carrying a fire extinguisher. And she started putting the fire out with the foam.

After the fire was out Mrs. Rochester disappeared amongst the chimneys.

*I wonder how hard it would be to make my bedroom look like this?

*I don’t even particularly like mint tea, but this picture looked very refreshing yesterday at lunch when I was sweating like a pig – I mean, glowing…yes, glowing, in a very ladylike manner – in the 107 degree heat:

*I have no reason to share this picture except that I am madly in love with it.

*I shared this on Facebook a couple of weeks ago, but in case you missed it: This is why my next car will have a sunroof. You never know when Telugu movie stars are going to fall from the sky!

June Movies

Superman (1978, English) – Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder
I remember watching this as a kid and being very disappointed in Christopher Reeve. My Superman was Dean Cain, on the TV show Lois and Clark. *swoon* I liked it better this time around, though the time frame didn’t make much sense. Clark crashes to earth in the 1930s, I believe, and 20 years later it’s the 70s? Eh, whatever. It’s fun and goofy and Superman is an admirable superhero, unlike the ones we get now who are all dark and twisty and one step away from being the bad guy themselves.

X-Men: First Class (2011, English) – James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, etc.
I saw the first X-Men movie years ago and liked it, but was always mad that Hugh Jackman and Anna Pacquin’s characters didn’t fall in love (I like older men, okay? I saw nothing wrong with it!), so I never watched the others. Thankfully you don’t have to be overly familiar with the X-Men world to understand this prequel. It was pretty fabulous. I loved Michael Fassbender as Magneto.

*Kites (2010, Hindi) – Hrithik Roshan, Kangana Ranaut, Barbara Mori
Oh, Hrithik Roshan. I had a bad feeling about Kites from the first time I heard about it, but since I haven’t watched many new Hindi movies lately I thought I’d give it a chance. Hrithik is not an actor I like at the best of times – he’s cheesy and overacts and his rubber-legs dancing always seems weird to me. Add all that to a story that makes no sense and you get Emily falling asleep about 45 minutes in.

Star Trek (2009, English) – Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto
I was not expecting to like this as much as I did. I wasn’t expecting to like it at all, really. But it was a lot of fun, and the Star-Trek-iness of it wasn’t anything like I always assumed Star Trek to be. And there was Karl Urban. I like him a lot.

Aata (2007, Telugu) – Siddharth, Ileana
No matter how many times I watch Aata it never gets old. Siddharth is so lovably goofy, I understand more of the references to other movies each time, and the elaborate plot of the second half where the villain is manipulated into playing romantic hero while Siddharth romances the girl behind his back is always fun to watch.

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (2008, Hindi) – Shah Rukh Khan, Anushka Sharma
Another one that never gets old. Shah Rukh Khan as nerdy, shy Surinder Sahni is so adorable it’s almost painful to watch. And oh, what I wouldn’t give for Anushka’s costumes. And that house!

Namo Venkatesa (2010, Telugu) – Venkatesh, Trisha
My first Venkatesh movie, chosen at random because I liked a song from it. It was fun, if a bit overly silly, and I was disappointed that Subbaraju had so little do do as the villainous fiance. I would have liked Trisha’s character to fall for Venky more gradually, rather than it being brought on at the end by finding out how devoted he was to her. There was no need to suddenly throw in an NRI boyfriend just to stretch the plot out some more.

Awaara (2010, Telugu) – Karthi, Tamannah
I also watched this just because I’d liked a song from it – since none of the actors I like have new movies available on DVD right now I’ve been floundering around a bit trying to find movies to watch. It was fun and the songs were great, but there were too many fight scenes, especially since there was no suspense to them. 20 guys run at the hero, he beats them up and the main characters continue on their way. Still, I liked it. I probably wouldn’t watch it again, but I’d buy the soundtrack.

The Adjustment Bureau (2011, English) – Matt Damon, Emily Blunt
I was expecting this to be both more romantic and more sci-fi thriller-y than it turned out to be. The love story was barely developed – they meet, feel an instant connection, are separated for a while, meet again, feel an instant connection, are separated for a while, etc. – and the “Adjustment Bureau” seemed sinister and creepy to begin with, but ultimately just…give up because of the power of love or free will or something. There were vague references to “the chairman” who was supposed to be God, I think, which made the ending feel a bit sacreligious: “You can either follow what God wants or choose free will and do things your way.” It was weird. Emily Blunt and Matt Damon had very little chemistry, either, so the whole thing felt awkward and forced.

Eclipse (2010, English) – Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart
I have a love/hate relationship with all the Twilight movies. I watch them multiple times, but all I do is complain the whole time about what they got wrong.

Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Extended Edition (2002, English) – Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortensen, etc.
Ohhh, the nostalgia. Every time I think I’ve gotten my fill of Lord of the Rings, all it takes is hearing the music and Galadriel’s voiceover at the beginning for me to be sucked right back in, wanting to re-read the books and falling in love with Aragorn and Boromir and wanting to move to Rivendell. I’d actually forgotten that Boromir died, somehow, and it took me by surprise again just like the first time, and I got a bit teary, which hasn’t happened for a long time.

Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Extended Edition (2003, English) – KARL URBAN, Viggo Mortensen, etc.

My favorite. I saw this at least 19 times in the theater, and another dozen or so once it came out on DVD. I could probably recite it for you if I really put my mind to it and had music to prompt me. I love how the world of Middle Earth expands in this one, and you see more of the human characters and their homes. Also: Eomer. I loved him so much a few years ago that I wrote fanfiction about him. I still kind of want to marry him.

Oh, Tollywood…

I love Telugu movies, but what I don’t love is the tendency of journalists to jump on any comment made by a movie star and turn it into something scandalous. In the past week two actresses have been ripped apart by the press (and fans) for comments that have been blown way out of proportion.

First, Kajal Agarwal said that for her doing a role in a Hindi movie isn’t strange because she grew up in Mumbai and is familiar with Bollywood. People are calling for her to be banned from South Indian movies, saying she’s insulted South Indians and thinks she’s too good for them.

Then Nithya Menon, when asked whether she’d work with Prabhas, said she had no idea who he is because she doesn’t watch a lot of Telugu movies. People went crazy saying she’d insulted him – I even saw one headline saying she should be slapped for it. What the fish, people? It’s not like she said, “Ew, I would never work with Prabhas, he’s so ugly and a terrible actor.” That would be an insult, and I’d want to slap her myself for saying it. But not knowing who he is – that’s not an insult. Neither is acknowledging that, though you’ve had a lot of success in South Indian movies, at heart you’re a Punjabi from Mumbai. It’s just stating a fact!

Anyway, all of this was just an excuse to share a song. It’s Prabhas and Kajal Agarwal in Darling. It makes me happy.

Day 14

14. What is the best book you’ve read in the past year?

The Marriage Bureau for Rich People by Farahad Zama.

I usually have no luck when I go to bookstores just to browse. I read a lot, but I’m picky about what I’ll actually buy, so most of the time I just wander aimlessly, getting more and more disgruntled that none of my favorite authors have new books for me to buy, and leave in a bad mood.

But one day last summer, I went to Hastings instead of Barnes and Noble, and a bright pink book sitting face-out on the shelf caught my eye. From the author’s name and the hands of Fatima on the cover, I assumed it was about Morocco (I don’t know why, it was just the first country I thought of), and probably one of those grim annoying books where everything bad that can happen, does…but it was pink. Hot pink. And there was a quote from Sophie Kinsella on the cover, too. Sophie Kinsella wouldn’t be recommending a depressing book about oppressed Muslims, right?

So I picked it up and read the back. It’s about India! And not only India, but Vizag – a place I’m familiar with from all those Telugu movies! I have to read this! I took a chance and brought it home, and it turned out to be exactly the book I’d been looking for: something set in India, with the fun and frothiness of a Bollywood movie. There was a romance worthy of Jane Austen, and descriptions of everyday life that, though they’d be boring if it was about someone just like you, are somehow fascinating when they’re about people in a foreign country. I like how Publisher’s Weekly sums it up: “Zama’s delightful world of mid-morning tea breaks, afternoon siestas, picnics in mango groves and meddlesome aunties is a pleasant place to hang out.”

And “tall, handsome” Dr. Ramanujam was easy to mentally cast as Prabhas:

Some other mental casting decisions I’ve made are Nithya Menon as Aruna:

Comedian Brahmanandam as Mr. Ali. He usually plays ridiculously stupid characters, but I’m sure he could pull off the wise, fatherly Mr. Ali very well:

Oh, and Rana Daggubati as the Ali’s son, Rehman, who has a smallish part in this book but becomes a main character in the next two:

It would be so much fun to see this as a movie, and have different Telugu stars make cameos as marriage bureau customers!

May Movies

No, your eyes do not deceive you: I only watched 6 and a half movies this month. I was shocked too. There just wasn’t much time, because my sister discovered Roswell and was watching that whenever I would normally have decided to watch a movie.

As always, a * means I didn’t finish it.

Milenge Milenge (2010, Hindi) – Shahid Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor
Cute but dumb. A girl is told she’ll meet the man she’s going to marry “on a foreign beach at sunrise, wearing 7 different colors”. A guy finds her journal and arranges things so they meet at sunrise while he’s wearing 7 different colors. When she finds out he’s tricked her, the movie turns into a remake of Serendipity. This was filmed several years ago, back when Kareena looked like she ate on a regular basis, and unfortunately back when Shahid looked like a 12-year-old.

Water For Elephants (2011, English) – Robert Pattinson, Reese Witherspoon
I could never watch this movie again. Parts of it were good, but the cruelty to animals – even though it’s only implied for the most part – is not something I ever want to see again. I don’t think I’ve ever hated a character – literally hated, not just been bored or irritated by – as much as I hated August. I was ready to rip him apart with my bare hands by the end.

Thank You (2011, Hindi) – Akshay Kumar, Bobby Deol, Sonam Kapoor
Akshay Kumar’s presence in a movie is usually enough to keep me far away, but someone’s review made me want to watch Thank You. It’s cheesy and stupid and contains too many bikini-clad white women, but it’s also hilarious in parts and doesn’t take itself seriously, so the stupidity is funny instead of offensive.

Ala Modalaindi (2011, Telugu) – Nani, Nithya Menon
When BhavaniDVD sends an email saying that “the best movie of the year” has come out on dvd, I don’t always believe them. I did a few times before, and it was a waste of money. But this time they didn’t mislead me. Ala Modalaindi (“that’s how it started”) is sweet but not sugary, with enough typical Tollywood fun to keep things lively. I loved the framework of the hero being kidnapped (by the actor I will always think of as Creepy Cop from Pokiri, no matter how many good guys he plays) and telling his story as they drive. Nithya Menon isn’t quite beautiful, but she has a very Rani-Mukherjee-esque quality of being pretty and also able to act, and is very fun to watch. The only thing I wasn’t crazy about was Nani as the hero. He just doesn’t do much for me, and I would have liked to see Siddharth or Allu Arjun in his place. Other than that, it’s wonderful.

Humko Tumse Pyaar Hai (2006, Hindi) – Arjun Rampal, Amisha Patel, Bobby Deol
An old favorite. A blind sculptress falls in love with a man she knows only as “Babu”, who takes her to get an eye operation that will restore her vision. Before the bandages can be taken off, he’s killed, and she winds up in Switzerland with her doctor, being wooed by another man who is mourning the death of his childhood friend. I showed it to some friends who spent the whole time laughing uproariously at the silly subtitles and general cheesiness. I don’t think they realized that I watch it completely straight-faced and love it.

Rules: Pyaar Ka Superhit Formula (2003, Hindi) – Meera Vasudevan, Milind Soman
Very cute wish-fulfillment type movie about a girl whose celebrity crush turns into a real love story, with a little help from her Grandma. It’s the perfect slumber party movie.

*Clue (1985, English) – Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn, etc.
I like Clue, but by the time we put this one in I was feeling sleepy and slap-happy and couldn’t keep my eyes open another minute.

April Movies

Whoops, I wrote this all up last week but saved it as a draft instead of posting it!

Harishchandrachi Factory (2009, Marathi) – Nandu Madhav, Vibhawari Deshpande
Based on the true story of the man who made the first Indian movie. This is probably the epitome of the “feel-good movie”: extremely likeable characters, no villains, humor that doesn’t rely on vulgarity. I thought it was very good, and fun to watch.

Northanger Abbey (2007, English) – Felicity Jones, JJ Feild
An adorable adaptation of my favorite Jane Austen novel. I watched this (for the hundredth time) with some friends and we all sat there the entire time grinning like loons at everything JJ Feild did or said. He is just impossibly cute!

*I Hate Luv Storys (2010, Hindi) – Imran Khan, Sonam Kapoor
I would have finished this, but for some reason the DVD froze up and refused to go any farther about halfway through. I’ve seen it before and enjoyed it – it’s a cute, if unrealistic and mostly forgettable, romantic comedy about a girl who loves romance and a guy who only believes in one-night stands.

Dil Chahta Hai (2001, Hindi) – Aamir Khan, Akshaye Khanna, Saif Ali Khan
If it wasn’t for this movie, I would not be the Bollywood-obsessed weirdo I am today. I hadn’t seen it in a few years so I thought it was time for a re-watch, and of course it’s just as good as ever. I still laugh hysterically when Sameer grabs the chair out from under the woman who’s about to sit down because he’s so distracted by Pooja, cry when Akash proposes to Shalini using the same cheesy pick-up lines he used the first time they met, and fall madly in love with Sid the moment he appears on screen.

Emma (2009, English) – Romola Garai, Jonny Lee Miller
I loved the Gwyneth Paltrow version of Emma, so you know this one has to be good when I say it’s even better. It’s such a very pretty movie, and every character is well cast. Is it wrong that I get a bit swoony over Mr. Elton in this version? I can’t help it, Blake Ritson is just too gorgeous to hate!

Pournami (2006, Telugu) – Prabhas, Trisha, Charmme
Once upon a time someone showed me a picture of Prabhas, and I went to Netflix and added all of his movies to the top of my queue. And then I watched Pournami and decided I was going to marry him someday. Of all his movies, this is my favorite so far – he gets to be goofy, instead of Mr. Cool and Tough and Suave (which is nice, too, but I like goofy best).

The Mummy Returns (2001, English) – Brendran Fraser, Rachel Weisz
I remembered liking this a lot more the last time I saw it. From now on I’ll just stick to The Mummy and pretend the sequels never happened.

On Golden Pond (1981, English) – Henry Fonda, Katharine Hepburn
My dad made me watch this while I was at home doing laundry one night. It was okay, I guess. Not really my thing.

Sense and Sensibility (1995, English) – Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant
Would you believe that my brother came over and asked if we could watch this? I think he must like a girl who likes Jane Austen. This is the only movie in which I’ve ever understood what other women like about Alan Rickman.

Namastey London (2007, Hindi) – Akshay Kumar, Katrina Kaif
It took me a while to warm up to Katrina Kaif’s character, because I felt a lot more sympathy for her dad in their arguments than for her. But once they get to India I was hooked. Apparently I can stand Akshay Kumar as long as he’s paired with Katrina Kaif (the only other movie of his I’ve liked is Humko Deewana Kar Gaye).

Sillunu Oru Kadhal (2006, Tamil) – Surya, Jyothika, Bhoomika Chawla
I remembered this as being really good, but that must just be because I like the songs from it so much. The college scenes dragged for me this time around. I couldn’t understand why someone as sweet as Ishu would fall in love with a bully who went around beating people up for fun. And why do Tamil movie heroes always have such dweeby friends? Also, Vadivelu should be banned from movies forever, for the sake of us all.

*27 Dresses (2008, English) – Katherine Heigl, James Marsden
I gave this 20 minutes to impress me, and it didn’t. The whole premise just seemed silly to me: if you want to spend your life helping brides on their big day, you become a wedding planner. Not a professional bridesmaid. Plus, Katherine Heigl’s acting always feels very fake and “Now I am acting and this is my acting voice and these are my acting mannerisms” to me.

*Sorry Bhai (2008, Hindi) – Sharman Joshi, Chitrangada Singh
I also gave this 20 minutes to impress me, and turned it off after about 15. It was all very stilted and trying too hard to be quirky.

Vicar of Dibley – A Holy Wholly Happy Ending (2007, English) – Dawn French, Richard Armitage
Despite some very vulgar jokes, especially in the second episode, I adore this. I wonder if there’s anyone out there who actually watches this because they loved Vicar of Dibley, or if it’s all just Richard Armitage fangirls swooning over him?

Sharpe’s Rifles (1993, English) – Sean Bean, Assumpta Serna
After saving the Duke of Wellington’s life, Richard Sharpe is raised from the ranks to be an officer, much to the displeasure of his fellow officers and the men serving under him (since he’s not nobility). Oh, young Sean Bean, how I loved you!

Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (2003, English) – Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley
I saw a trailer for the new PotC movie and felt like rewatching this. I still kind of wish they’d stopped at one; the sequels were rubbish. This one has a good plot, good villains, and humor that is actually humorous.

Parineeta (2005, Hindi) – Saif Ali Khan, Vidya Balan
My sister and I watch this fairly regularly just to watch Saif Ali Khan as the brooding, grumpy hero. And to debate who should have played Girish instead of Sanjay Dutt. This time we decided on Arjun Rampal. At least then it would make sense when his character is called “handsome”:

Not handsome:

Extremely handsome:

Do you see the difference, casting directors?

Cold Comfort Farm (1995, English) – Kate Beckinsale, Eileen Atkins
One of my favorite movies for cheering myself up on a day when I’m feeling grumpy. I love the book, too, but the movie is more of a quick-fix. Especially when Rufus Sewell is on!

Jane Eyre (1996, English) – Charlotte Gainsbourg, William Hurt
It might not be entirely fair, since I judge every Jane Eyre adaptation by the Toby Stephens one, but I didn’t care for this version. Jane with a French accent? No chemistry between her and Mr. Rochester? No thank you.

The Mask of Zorro (1998, English) – Antonio Banderas, Catherine Zeta-Jones
I don’t remember what made me suddenly want to watch this, but I did. Still very goofy and fun, even though I’ve outgrown my Antonio Banderas crush. I would give almost anything to look like Catherine Zeta-Jones in this movie.

3 Idiots (2009, Hindi) – Aamir Khan, Madhavan, Sharman Joshi
Finally! I remember this movie being a huge hit when it first came out, but it’s taken two years to be released on DVD. It’s good, but relies too much on toilet humor for me to really love it. Aamir Khan might technically be too old for playing a college student, but honestly, once he comes on screen you forget that he’s 40-something. And it has one of the most fun love songs I’ve seen in a while:

Tangled (2010, English) – Mandy Moore, Zachary Levi

When I was younger I was obsessed with Rapunzel, and I’d been waiting for a Disney version forever. This wasn’t exactly like the story I remembered, but it was completely adorable and I loved it!

Friday Blather

A couple of things I noticed and found interesting while putting out magazines this morning:

1. Newsweek has a big cover story about Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding. Time has a grumpy op-ed piece by Joe Queenan, whoever he is, about how the only people who care about the royal wedding are “nitwit Anglophiles” who don’t have a clue about what actually makes Britain great.

Um.

Just because I got excited about someone else’s wedding, and that someone else happens to be marrying a member of the royal family, doesn’t make me a nitwit. Most of the time my Anglophilia is more about Jane Austen and Doctor Who and Cadbury bars, anyway. (Also Prestat chocolate, which has the prettiest packaging in the world. I need to make English friends who could send me some!) I’m pretty sure I’m not actually harming any real live English people by liking their chocolate and goofy sci-fi television, so why does Joe Queenan care?

2. In Entertainment Weekly’s Breaking Dawn feature: Melissa Rosenberg, who writes the scripts for the movies, talks about how awkward it was for her, as a pro-choice feminist, to write a story where a woman chooses to risk her life for a baby rather than abort it.

Apparently pro-choice to her means “choose abortion every time”?

Well, that’s getting dangerously political, so on to something more frivolous:

I do not like this article one bit. “Surely the news of Prabhas wedding might bring cheer to fan base.” Despair, more like. He’s my last unmarried Indian actor crush!

Prabhas, wait for me! Who will I daydream about while I look at wedding saris if you get married?

(This one is my favorite at the moment. Because I thought a sari might be too complicated for an ignorant white girl like me, and this is just a skirt and top with a long scarf. (And also, this being fantasy, I’ve lost about a million pounds and would actually look good in/would appear in public in a tiny little backless choli.))

Stop looking at me like that! This is perfectly normal!

Wedding Fever

In all the excitement over the Royal Wedding, I almost forgot NTR was getting married soon, too!

They look very cute and I hope they’ll be happy together.

I also hope the Prabhas marriage rumors are just a result of all his friends getting married lately, because I haven’t met him yet so how can he be getting married?

I’m just joking.

Or am I?

March Movies

I suppose it’s possible I’ll watch another movie tonight, but since I’ll be at my parents’ house doing laundry I doubt it.

As always, * = didn’t finish it.

*Kuch Khatti Kuch Meethi (2001, Hindi) – Kajol, Rishi Kapoor
A remake of The Parent Trap, which I’d been wanting to see for a long time. Unfortunately I got a copy without subtitles, and though I like to think I can understand Hindi well enough to follow movie plots on my own, on the night I tried to watch KKKM I had a pounding headache, and trying to decipher the dialogue just made it worse. I do intend to try it again sometime.

Fiddler on the Roof (1971, English) – Topol, Rosalind Harris
I saw part of this a long time ago but I didn’t remember any of the plot. It was a lot more depressing than I had always thought, and the acting – especially on the part of the three daughters – was quite atrocious in places. I apologize if I’ve just insulted anyone’s favorite movie, but it wasn’t for me. :-/

*Lakshyam (2007, Telugu) – Gopichand, Anushka Shetty
Maybe I jinxed myself by starting the month with a movie I didn’t watch all the way through. I’d been looking forward to this for a while, too – there’s a preview for it on another movie I watch fairly often, and I get one of the songs stuck in my head on a regular basis – but the plot dragged and Gopichand isn’t a very appealing hero. I much prefer him as the over-the-top villain in Varsham, having his henchmen beat him with 2x4s to prove how tough he is!

*Vanity Fair (2004, English) – Reese Witherspoon, James Purefoy
I meant to watch this back when it came out, and seeing Monsoon Wedding again reminded me of that. There were parts of this that I liked, but I just got bored and I think I had something else to do that night, anyway, though I can’t remember now what it was.

Brindavanam (2010, Telugu) – NTR jr., Kajal Agarwal, Samantha
Finally! I don’t know why it always seems to take twice as long for movies with NTR, Mahesh Babu, or Prabhas to come out on DVD as any other actors, but it’s really starting to bug me. This one lived up to my expectations for the most part – NTR was adorable and funny, looked equally competent fighting or dancing, and spent more time trying to fix the heroine’s family than actually falling for her. I’m not usually a fan of the ambiguous ending in these two-heroine movies, but since neither girl really impressed me here I thought it was funny.

Wild Target (2010, English) – Bill Nighy, Emily Blunt, Rupert Grint
Rule #1: Never let my brother pick the movie. To be fair, I also saw who was in it and read the description and thought it sounded good. As a very dark comedy (a hitman messes up a job and ends up on the run with the woman he was supposed to shoot and a random guy they pick up in a parking garage) it had it’s moments, but they were few and far between and overall it was just odd.

The Constant Gardener (2005, English) – Ralph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz
Another one my brother chose. A depressing story about pharmaceutical companies exploiting poor African people by using them to test experimental drugs for diseses they might or might not have. Rachel Weisz’s character tries to expose them and winds up brutally murdered, and her husband is told she was murdered by her lover. Now that I think about it, I’m pretty sure this movie is the reason I decided I was perfectly fine with never leaving the country!

Expelled (2008, English) – Documentary, Ben Stein
And then one my dad chose. I found it interesting that most of the anti-intelligent-design people Ben Stein talks to get so angry so quickly at the very suggestion that something other than random chance might have created the universe. The very idea of God – even just a vague, “Supreme Being”-type creator who set events in motion and then left us to fend for ourselves – seems to be about the most offensive thing you can mention. It was interesting, overall.

The Namesake (2006, English/Bengali) – Kal Penn, Tabu, Irrfan Khan
Another Mira Nair movie I was planning to watch before I discovered real Bollywood and forgot all about it. I enjoyed the parts with Tabu and Irrfan Khan very much – their meeting and wedding in Calcutta, and their first years of marriage – but when Kal Penn took over I kind of hated it. I felt pretty much the same way about the book, too. The parents were a lot more interesting to me than the “trying hard to fit in” son.

*Bhale Dongalu (2008, Telugu) – Tarun, Ileana
I’d been warned in advance that this remake of Bunty aur Babli was extremely low-budget and silly, but B&B is one of my favorite movies, so I couldn’t not see it! The beginning was okay – it was less flashy than B&B, but the story was the same – but the longer it went, the more convoluted and silly the cons became, and they threw in a crazy plot where, to get money for a little girl’s surgery, the couple decide to make fake cocaine and sell it to a drug dealer. By that point it was obvious that this was turning into a typical Telugu “in the end the villain must be beaten to a bloody pulp” plot, and Tarun was starting to get on my nerves, so I just turned it off.

*Happy Happy Ga (2010, Telugu) – Varun Sandesh, Saranya Mohan
This was so bad I barely made it through fifteen minutes. Varun Sandesh, I don’t know what you’re thinking, but this is the third of your movies that has been just plain stupid. Please go back to making movies like Kotha Bangaru Lokam!

Rama Rama Krishna Krishna (2010, Telugu) – Ram, Priya Anand, Bindu Madhavi
I was beginning to think the movies I’d rented from NJMTV were all duds, or that I was just losing interest in Tollywood, and then I watched this one. It was so much fun! I liked how everything got tied together in the end. Ram still kind of creeps me out since that one movie where the girl licks his eye, but I think if I can ever get that mental picture out of my head I might like him quite a bit.

*Jhummandi Naadam (2010, Telugu) – Manoj Manchu, Taapsee
Another one I didn’t watch much of before deciding it was too stupid to bother with. Manoj Manchu isn’t as cute as he thinks he is, and Taapsee is dreadful. I can’t even blame it on the dubbing – she’s just bad, and kind of slutty. Hopefully she’s not going to start showing up in every movie.

Beastly (2011, English) – Alex Pettyfer, Vanessa Anne Hudgens
I thought this was horrible, but everyone keeps telling me I’m being too hard on it, so I don’t know anymore. I thought it was stupid. A watered-down version of the book (and I wasn’t much of a fan of that, either), really cheesy stupid dialogue, bad acting. But that’s just me, apparently.

Varudu (2010, Telugu) – Allu Arjun, Arya
I love this movie so much! It’s like Vivah’s Telugu cousin: sweet arranged marriage love story, but with a twist in order to provide Tollywood fans with their quota of fight scenes and hero/villain shouting matches. Sandeep is a modern young guy who shocks his parents and friends by announcing that he wants an old-fashioned arranged marriage like his great-grandparents had. His parents find him a girl who turns out to be perfect for him, but before they can get married he’ll have to battle her creepy stalker, an actor who played so many villain roles it warped his mind.

Letters to Juliet (2010, English) – Amanda Seyfried, Christopher Egan
I’m not having much luck with American romantic comedies this month! Like RED last month, I saw a preview for Letters to Juliet every time I watched Eclipse in the theater, but it took me a while to get around to watching it. (To be honest, I didn’t really see the need, since they give away pretty much the entire story in the trailer.) It’s not really bad, I guess, just kind of shallow and predictable. Even that I wouldn’t have minded, if there was any real chemistry or romantic tension to make me want Amanda Seyfried’s character to end up with one guy more than the other. But there wasn’t.

*Aarya 2 (2010, Telugu) – Allu Arjun, Kajal Agarwal
I’d seen this before, and turned it on more for background noise while I was cleaning the living room and washing dishes. Eventually I paused it, went to do something else, and never came back. I completely forgot I’d been watching it until my sister opened the DVD player later.

Chup Chup Ke (2006, Hindi) – Shahid Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor
I remembered this being a lot more fun, and a lot more about the romance. I usually have that problem with Priyadarshan’s movies, though, so I must just block out what I don’t like the first time around. A guy who owes more money than he can repay fakes his own death so his parents can repay his creditors with the insurance money, but since no one finds his body the insurance people won’t pay up. Meanwhile he’s pretending to be deaf and mute, and living as a servant – but tricking someone else into doing all his work – in the house of a rich Gujerati family. I like this mainly for the songs, especially “Dil Vich Lagya Ve”, in which Shahid dances like his life depends on it while everyone else just sort of goes through the motions of the choreography like normal. It makes me smile.

The Tourist (2010, English) – Angelina Jolie, Johnny Depp
After hearing several people say they didn’t like this, and knowing that I don’t much care for either star, I wasn’t sure what I’d think of The Tourist. It turned out to be very enjoyable, with a sort of Old Hollywood, glamorous vibe. I still don’t like Angelina Jolie, but she suited the character since she can pull off that elegant, unapproachable attitude. Johnny Depp surprised me, too. There are lots of twists and turns to the plot, but not a lot of explosions or chase scenes, which might be why people were disappointed – it’s not an action movie the way they’re usually done now.

Indian Wedding Pictures!

Telugu hero Allu Arjun got married yesterday!

I love the signs like this at Indian weddings. It’s very cute.

The bride. Isn’t she beautiful?

Aww!

February Movies

* = didn’t finish

Slumdog Millionaire (2008, English/Hindi) – Dev Patel, Freida Pinto
When this came out just about everyone I know told me I’d love it, so, being obstinate, I decided I was going to hate it. And sure enough, when I first watched it I thought it was overrated and irritating. But then, for some reason, I rented it again, and this time I loved it. I still think it was overhyped, and I hate when people watch movies like this or Bride and Prejudice and then think they’ve seen a Bollywood movie, but it made me cry and when I wasn’t actively trying to dislike it I realized it was actually pretty good.

Pride and Prejudice (2005, English) – Keira Knightley, Matthew MacFadyen
I have a confession to make: I don’t like the 1995 Colin Firth P&P. I know, I know, it’s blasphemy. I don’t hate it or anything, I just never understood why people go so gaga over it. But this one, I love. It’s so beautiful, and even though it might be anachronistic and take a few liberties with the story, I can forgive it everything when Mr. Darcy comes striding across the field in the misty morning to propose to Elizabeth. *swoon*

Gaudy Night (1987, English) – Edward Petherbridge, Harriet Walter
I started watching the Lord Peter Wimsey productions right after I finished reading the books last year, but for some reason I couldn’t find this one at the time and it’s taken me a while to get around to it. It’s very good – faithful to the book (from what I remember), and well cast. Edward Petherbridge and Harriet Walter look exactly how I pictured Harriet and Lord Peter when I was reading.

Bend it Like Beckham (2002, English/Punjabi) – Parminder Nagra, Keira Knightley, Jonathan Rhys Meyers
I used to love this movie so much. I must have watched it at least 5 times in a row, bought the soundtrack, bought the book (based on the screenplay and not very good), tried aloo gobi because of it…I was obsessed. Rewatching it now I couldn’t really remember why it made such an impression on me. It’s a cute movie but doesn’t appeal to me any more.

Atonement (2007, English) – Keira Knightley, James McAvoy
Apparently I was on a Keira Knightley kick last month! I thought this was terribly overrated. Lovely, with the big English country house and the late-30s/early-40s costumes, but lacking depth and, in the end, very emotionally manipulative.

*The Bank Job (2008, English) – Jason Statham, Saffron Burrows
My brother saw this in my stack of movies from the library and said, “No. Don’t watch this. The first scene is horrible.” Well, I thought, I’ll just avert my eyes if the first scene is really that bad, and then it should be okay. NO. There are naked women EVERYWHERE in this movie. The heist/bank robbing plot would have been interesting, but every two minutes there was another naked lady – or ten. After about 20 minutes I got tired of hoping that the nudity was over, and just didn’t finish it.

Monsoon Wedding (2001, English/Hindi) – Naseeruddin Shah, Vasundhara Das
It was Monsoon Wedding that led me to Bollywood, and, along with Bend It Like Beckham, I used to watch this over and over and over before I finally found Lagaan and Dil Chahta Hai and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. Unlike BILB, I liked this one even more now. I could understand quite a bit of the Hindi dialogue, and more of the culture made sense to me. It’s wonderful.

RED (2010, English) – Bruce Willis, Mary-Louise Parker
I saw a preview for this all 4 times I saw Eclipse in the theater, and though I’ve never been a Bruce Willis fan I thought it looked fun. So I rented it when the DVD came out and watched it with my dad. It was great. Oh, not “high quality movie that explores some deep issue of life” great, but “entertaining action movie with fun fight scenes and witty dialogue” great. I even had a crush on Bruce Willis for about 3 days afterward.

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (2008, Hindi) – Shah Rukh Khan, Anushka Sharma
I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve seen RNBDJ, but it never gets old. Shah Rukh Khan is painfully adorable as shy, nerdy Surinder Sahni, madly in love with his beautiful new wife who is still mourning the death of her father and previous fiance on the same day. I do wish the story was better organized toward the end, but it’s such an entertaining, sweet movie I’m not going to complain.

Zamaana Deewana (1993 or 1995, Hindi) – Shah Rukh Khan, Raveena Tandon
I’d seen this before, a few years ago, bought the DVD afterward, and then let it sit on the shelf collecting dust while I forgot how fun and silly it is.

Happy (2006, Telugu) – Allu Arjun, Genelia D’Souza
Not my favorite Allu Arjun movie, but a fun one. Very bloody towards the end.

Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010, English) – Ben Barnes, Georgie Henley
I would have seen this sooner but I didn’t want to see the 3D version, so I had to wait until it was at the cheap theater. It was pretty good. Not very much like the book, from what I remember, more of a loose interpretation. And what happened to Caspian’s Spanish accent?

Break Ke Baad (2010, Hindi) – Imran Khan, Deepika Padukone
I’m really glad I decided to rent this and not just buy the DVD, because it was a disappointment. Imran and Deepika do a decent job, but the story kept twisting and turning and never quite getting anywhere. A week and a half later I can barely even remember what it was about!

Shivamani (2003, Telugu) – Nagarjuna, Asin
Message in a Bottle, Tollywood style – I can’t get away from Nicholas Sparks even in Telugu movies! Thankfully the MIAB similarities are only in story structure. A reporter finds a message in a bottle on the beach, is intrigued by the note inside, and tracks down the writer, stumbling into a heartbreaking love story. There is some really laughable “only in Bollywood” medicine: getting stabbed in the throat has no consequences but muteness! Being left out in the sun and rain with no food or water for 3 days is only a minor difficulty, even after being beaten to within an inch of your life! And I still can’t decide whether I like Nagarjuna. It’s an entertaining movie, but I wouldn’t watch it again.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, pt. 1 (2010, English) – Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint
Having read the book since the first time I saw this, I can see now what parts got changed or left out. I still think it’s the best of the Harry Potter movies so far, the most faithful to the story as written, and the one most likely to make me embarrass myself by crying in the theater. It’s extremely dark, though, and I mean that literally. I’m half expecting that the next movie will be a completely black screen, and we’ll just hear voices and sound effects.

Band Baaja Baaraat (2010, Hindi) – Anushka Sharma, Ranveer Singh
A completely fun, cute, silly romantic comedy about wedding planners whose feelings for each other destroy their happy partnership. Exactly the sort of color-saturated, song-filled Yash Raj movie I’ve been craving.

Jewel Thief (1967, Hindi) – Dev Anand, Vijayanthimala
I don’t usually get excited about classic Bollywood movies unless they star Shammi Kapoor. This one was fun in that groovy 60s Bollywood way, but I don’t like Dev Anand much at all so I wasn’t really caught up in the story.

Nacho Libre (2006, English) – Jack Black, Ana de la Reguera
My brother quotes from this all the time, and I was tired of not being in on the joke. Ugh, I shouldn’t have wasted my time. What a stupid, pointless movie.

Outsourced (2006, English) – Josh Hamilton, Ayesha Dharker
I’d been watching the TV show based on this movie, but I hadn’t seen the original. I liked it. It wasn’t perfect – I hated the whole “Hey, I am going to have an arranged marriage but first I will sleep with you” “romance” – but it was funny and made a lot more sense than the show does sometimes.

Strictly Ballroom (1992, English) – Paul Mercurio, Tara Morice
This has been one of my favorite movies for years. It’s such a ridiculous, hilarious spoof of the ballroom dancing world, with over-the-top early-90s costumes and hairstyles. I used to have such a huge crush on Paul Mercurio…

Sainikudu (2006, Telugu) – Mahesh Babu, Trisha
I have a cold and felt miserable and just wanted to watch Mahesh Babu being awesome. I wish the kidnapping-turned-to-love plot was given more attention, since Trisha’s switching loyalties seems to come out of nowhere.

Watch What You Own #2

Happy (2006, Telugu), was one of my favorite Allu Arjun movies the last time I watched it, but it had been a few years so I barely remembered what it was about.

Madhu (Genelia) is on a school trip. While she’s packing to leave, one of her scarves flies away and she and her friends chase it into the woods where they hear a bird singing. One of her friends says (because this is what girls do in Telugu-movie-land) “Oh, if we call back to it and it likes our voice it will reply!” So Madhu repeats the bird’s song and it replies, and she runs toward it saying, “I love you!” Out from behind a rock pops Bunny (Allu Arjun), who was the “bird” the whole time. “Sorry,” he says, “I can’t love strangers.”

And that would be the end of that…except that once back in Hyderabad, Madhu and Bunny keep running into each other. One of her friends is dating one of his friends, and a misplaced love letter leads to trouble when Madhu’s dad finds it and decides to marry her off before she can marry outside their caste and ruin his political chances. Madhu is devastated – she had planned to finish medical school before getting married, and she doesn’t want to marry anyone her tyrannical bully of a father would choose, anyway. So Bunny, who put the letter in her book in the first place, goes to her fiance Aravind, an intimidating police officer, and asks him to break the engagement, lying that he and Madhu are in love.

And that would be the end of that…except that Madhu’s father just goes and finds someone else for her to marry, and Aravind steps in to “help” by getting Bunny and Madhu married himself. He offers them his own apartment to live in (presumably he lives with his parents or has another house somewhere) and goes his merry way, thinking he’s united two lovers. But Bunny and Madhu can’t stand each other, and fight like cats and dogs, culminating in a line being drawn down the center of the apartment and an agreement that neither will cross into the other’s half.

I’m not entirely sure why the movie is called “Happy” – maybe someone just thought it sounded good? Probably the same someone who thought calling Ram Cheran Teja’s latest movie “Orange” would be a good idea.

It’s pretty cute. Allu Arjun plays his stock character, a cute but mildly annoying guy who wears you down with his big cheesy grin and smooth dance moves. Genelia looks pretty, but her acting is ruined by whoever did the dubbing for her. Her facial expressions are fine, but then her voice comes out as shrill and shrieky. Her character is interesting because she almost seems to be living a double life. At home it’s just her and her grandmother against her father and his gang of bodyguards and yes-men, and she’s terrified of him. Whenever he walks in the room she cowers and whispers and can barely raise her eyes to his face. But the minute she’s out of the house she’s carefree and spunky, a completely different person. It would be interesting to see part of the story focused on that – how after marriage, even an unwanted marriage, she finally has the freedom to be herself, to be comfortable at home, to live with a man who isn’t a loud, angry bully – but it’s not ever brought up, and the post-marriage conflict comes from somewhere else entirely.

I’m mostly over my crush on Allu Arjun, but I still think this is a fun movie and I liked it a lot.

On a semi-unrelated note, I’m glad to see that the dvd is still in good shape. I’d heard a rumor that dvds from this company tend to disintegrate in quality over time, but I’ve had mine for at least two or three years and it didn’t have any problems.

January Movie List

I thought I’d do a monthly movie round-up, too, since I’m keeping a list this year anyway. Don’t worry, they won’t always be this long…at least, I don’t think they will. That’s partly why I’m keeping track – I’m curious to see how many movies I watch in a year.

* = didn’t finish

Pukar (2000, Hindi) – Anil Kapoor/Madhuri Dixit/Namrata Shirodkar
I went into this knowing I probably wouldn’t like it, but I saw a preview for it on another movie and the song they showed looked pretty. It started out okay, and reminded me of the snowy parts in Fanaa, but after that the story turned ludicrous and Anil “Overacting” Kapoor didn’t help it at all.

Zameen (2003,Hindi) – Ajay Devgan, Abhishek Bachchan, Bipasha Basu
I thought I’d seen all of Abhishek’s movies, and then this one showed up on Netflix. It was okay. Abhishek looked good, and there are some fun songs. It was a bit corny, and the India GREAT Pakistan EVIL parts seemed like something from a Sunny Deol movie. I don’t know that I’d watch it again, but I’ll watch the songs on YouTube from time to time.

Bollywood/Hollywood (2002, English/Hindi) – Rahul Khanna, Lisa Ray
I think I would have liked this before I’d seen any real Indian movies, back when I watched Monsoon Wedding and Bend It Like Beckham over and over again and didn’t know there were actual Bollywood movies I could be watching. Now it just seems sort of…goofy. It didn’t help that I watched it on Netflix Instant Watch, and the volume was so low that even with the speakers turned all the way up I could hardly hear the dialogue. Best part: Akshaye Khanna as the surprise guest at an engagement party.

*Mrs. Pollifax – Spy (1971, English) – Rosalind Russell
I keep meaning to finish this (it’s still in my Netflix Instant Watch queue) but forgetting about it. I didn’t dislike it, but I was annoyed by the miscasting for Mrs. Pollifax. She’s supposed to be very sweet and harmless looking, the last person a criminal would suspect of being a spy. Rosalind Russell looks too competent and interfering, exactly the sort of person who’d go around poking her nose into everyone’s business. And Farrell is supposed to be very dashing and handsome, not some washed-up John Wayne wannabe! I’ll get back to it one of these days.

Dinosaurs or Dragons (2010,English) – Documentary
My brother told me about this one. I found it interesting, but not many people on Netflix seem to feel the same, judging by the reviews. Basically, a group of Christian scientists believe that the stories of dragons are based on dinosaurs being alive at the same time as humans.

Robin Hood (2010, English) – Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett
Why did I listen to the people who said this was bad? It was awesome! I loved it!

Dhokha (2007, Hindi) – Tulip Joshi, Muzammil Ibrahim
Up to a certain point, I thought I loved this movie. Then bad things started happening, and the ending I was hoping for was obviously not going to happen, and I got tired of Mr. Model-turned-Actor and his constant posing.

Twilight (2008, English) – Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson
Every time I watch this I find more to complain about – why did they change X? Why did they do such a bad job on Y? – but I still watch it, if only for that one perfect moment when Edward turns to Bella in science class and says hello. It’s been making me swoon since the first time I saw Twilight in the theater.

*Blackmail (2005, Hindi) – Ajay Devgan, Suniel Shetty, Priyanka Chopra
I remembered watching this a few years ago, back when I had a crush on Ajay Devgan, and loving it. This time around I just wasn’t in the mood for Priyanka Chopra, so I turned it off when she started dancing around in a towel. I knew it got better eventually, but I didn’t feel like waiting for it to happen.

Madrasapattinam (2010, Tamil) – Arya, Amy Jackson
Like I said the other day, I adored this. I’d have bought it already if I wasn’t waiting for Brindavanam and Band Baaja Baarat to come out first so I can save on shipping.

Baava (2010, Telugu) – Siddharth
Not Siddharth’s best, but even Siddharth’s mediocre stuff is preferable to a lot of movies.

*Ek Niranjan (2010, Telugu) – Prabhas, Kangana Ranaut
I love Prabhas, and I like this movie, but watching Kangana Ranaut pout is not my idea of a good time. By the time they get to Bangkok I know there’s not much reason to keep watching – it’s just a song about Michael Jackson and the big bloody fight scene between Prabhas and Sonu Sood.

Dear John (2010, English) – Channing Tatum, Amanda Seyfried
Normally I avoid anything Nicholas Sparks touched like the plague, but Stephenie Meyer recommended this on her website a few months back, and I was in the mood for a fluffy chick flick. I liked parts of this, but for the life of me I can’t figure out why certain spoilery stuff happened.

*Naqaab (2007, Hindi) – Akshaye Khanna, Urvashi Sharma, Bobby Deol
Sometimes I find it really hard to remember why I like Bobby Deol. The poodle perm look he’s had in some of his more recent movies doesn’t make it any easier. He and Akshaye were okay in this, and if there’d been a better actress I probably would have kept watching. Urvashi Sharma was really irritating.

A Walk to Remember (2002, English) – Shane West, Mandy Moore
Watching Dear John reminded me of how much I used to love this movie. It still makes me cry a bit, cheesy and manipulative as it is.

Bunty aur Babli (2005, Hindi) – Rani Mukherjee, Abhishek Bachchan
It was grim and gloomy out, and my sister came home and announced we needed to watch something fun. Bunty aur Babli is pretty much the definition of “fun”. Oh, Abhishek, you were so much fun before you married Aishwarya Rai!

Lost in Translation (2003, English) – Scarlett Johansson, Bill Murray
I was surprised by how much I liked this. I never would have thought to watch it if the girl in Anna and the French Kiss hadn’t mentioned it as one of her favorite movies. I loved the setting, and the way it was filmed, so that you feel like you’re inside the characters’ heads. I could have done without the scene in the strip club, and the very first scene was pretty unnecessary, but other than that it was really very good.

Telugu Favorites Part 4

And now we come to Allu Arjun.

Arya (sometimes Aarya) was the first Telugu movie I watched, so if you were wondering who to blame for my obsession, now you know.

Allu Arjun, or “Bunny” as he’s popularly known, plays the main character Arya, who has a crush on a girl named Geetha.

But she’s caught the eye of a rich, popular guy at school who threatened to kill himself if Geetha didn’t agree to be his girlfriend. Geetha, who thinks she caused a man’s death over the summer when he dove into the water to rescue her anklet and never came back, said yes so that she wouldn’t have someone else’s death on her conscience.

Arya isn’t worried about Geetha loving him back, or about what her boyfriend might do to him if he goes too far. He tells Geetha he’s a proponent of “one-sided love”: I can’t control your feelings, but if I love you how does it hurt you? He sends her presents, sings her songs, and tries to woo her, but whenever the boyfriend is around he assures them both that there’s no hidden motive.

Then something happens – I think the boyfriend’s dad arranges his marriage to someone richer? – and Arya, Geetha, and the boyfriend find themselves on the run together.

Geetha’s feelings for Arya start to change, but he’s just vowed to see her and her boyfriend married, since he thinks it’s what she wants (he joined the school partway through the year and doesn’t know that she’s only dating what’s-his-name out of guilt).

Allu Arjun is good at playing these sort of happy-go-lucky, super-charming characters. This was one of his first movies, and his acting has definitely improved since then, but I still have a soft spot for Arya.

Telugu Favorites Part 3

Let’s talk about Mahesh Babu.

It took about ten minutes of Pokiri for me to fall in love with him. He’s so tall, with those intense eyes and then, out of nowhere, this utterly adorable boyish grin.

But we’ll save Pokiri for another day. Today I want to talk about Okkadu.

Ajay (Mahesh Babu) is a kabbadi player (kabbadi) whose strained relationship with his dad isn’t helped by the West Side Story-style gang fights he and his friends get in. While in Kurnool for a kabbadi tournament, he saves Swapna (Bhoomika Chawla), whose brothers were murdered by local gangster Obul Reddy (Prakash Raj) who wants to marry her.

Obul Reddy

Ajay saves Swapna

While on the run, they end up in the river

Obul Reddy ends up face-first in a mud puddle, and refuses to bathe until he gets Swapna back

There are so many little details I love about this movie. Obul Reddy’s large and frightening brother, who proves how tough he is by having men beat him with 2×4 boards, and his cigar-smoking mother. Swapna meeting Ajay’s dad on the street, not realizing who he is, and letting him escort her “home” to his own house. Swapna disguising herself as a doll to hide from Ajay’s family.

Okkadu is very sweet compared to most of Mahesh Babu’s movies. He’s not a cold-blooded killer who has to learn to love again, he’s not motivated by revenge or duty to his country or self-preservation, he’s just a nice guy who won’t stand aside and let the bad guys run off with a girl who’s terrified of them.

I usually encourage buying DVDs, but Okkadu is almost impossible to find so I don’t feel bad about suggesting you watch it on YouTube, starting here.